Followers

...and it should remind us of the relationship between freedom and the consciousness of possibility, between freedom and the imagination - the ability to make present what is absent, to summon up a condition that is not yet.

1.06.2009

My foundations art students are all worried today because they've got their 'midterm exam' on friday and their mean nasty terrible teacher won't even tell them what's on it. We'll keep 'em guessing I say - they're worried about what they'll need to know, but I'm just looking to challenge them creatively. We've spent so much of this last semester on observational drawing and we need to just have a day to kick start the imagination. So our midterm will be for them to design their own robot in a lesson styled after Joe Alterio's Robots and Monsters project.

Rather than having outsiders submit three words to describe their robots, I've found this Random Word Generator . Bookmark this one, its a pretty useful tool for idea generation.

3 Comments:

Just checked into the robots & monsters site- what a fantastic idea- and it would be a great art lesson at any grade level. It immediately made me think of the exquisite corpse game I play with my elementary students.Great post.

I love that fact that you are an inspirational teacher who challenges the students to think outside the box. I just wish you did not call them "outsiders". Since this is an art class, the students should be learning the true meaning of the phrase "outsider artist" in the art world.

Wonderlost- thanks! Its a favorite site of mine- my wife even commissioned a Robot by Joe for our anniversary last year. I love it!

Beverly - Interesting observation, I didn't intend "outsiders" to mean anything besides 'people outside the class'. However, I think a discussion of 'outsider art' in the classroom would be a great activity, since it can be a pretty elusive definition. Even looking at your blog (great, btw) reminds me of some of the complications - what is outsider art? Once an 'outsider' establishes themselves as an 'artist', are they still an 'outsider artist'? If we believe that anyone can be an artist, how can there even be an 'outsider art'?

About

The Carrot Revolution is an art education weblog and a resource page for art educators, art students, and artists in the digital age. Our goal is to fight the tyranny of the ordinary and to liberate from the status quo. Questions, comments, suggestions? Email! dsgran@yahoo.com.

Follow Me on Twitter

Rotoball Project

Rotoball is an international collaborative animation project for students. Rotoball 2015 is now underway! Head over to our website and join the project!